Nonwoven fabrics are used to make a variety of products which desirably have particular properties, such as for example softness, strength, uniformity, thickness, and absorbency. Such products include towels, industrial wipes, incontinence products, infant and adolescent care products such as diapers, absorbent feminine care products, garments such as medical apparel, and professional health care fabrics such as surgical draping. In many of these products, considerable time, effort and expense are dedicated to improving the products fluid management capabilities.
The fluid management capabilities of a product may be considered to be the product's ability to not only absorb a fluid but also to coach or channel the absorbed fluid to a preferred location within the product for storage. For example, in products such as diapers and feminine care products, fluid retention at the interface between the body and the product is generally not desired. It is generally preferred that such products be designed to rapidly absorb and then draw such fluids away from the body/product interface. A material layer which rapidly absorbs and then moves a fluid away from the body is sometimes referred to as a "surge" layer. Once the fluids have been absorbed and drawn away from the body, the fluids are preferably channeled towards and into one or more storage layers. These storage layers desirably hold or contain such fluids while minimizing reabsorption of these fluids by the surge layer.
In some instances, the product may be required to withstand multiple fluid insults or wettings before being replaced. As such, the designers and engineers of such products are constantly challenged to develop and/or refine materials which not only adequately surge, channel and retain fluids from an initial wetting but which adequately manage fluids from subsequent wettings. The designers' and engineers' tasks are made more formidable in view of (i) the hydrophobic nature of numerous materials traditionally used in the above products and (ii) the business and economic realities of producing such products for disposable markets.
Therefore, there exists a need for materials and particularly polymeric materials having improved fluid management capabilities as well as efficient and economical methods for making the same.